This Is Not How You Treat American Neighborhoods

esquire.com – In which we present to you another in our continuing series, What In The Holy Everloving Fck Is Going On Here?

By 5:30 p.m., a large crowd of at least 1,000 people had formed at the corner of France Street and East Boulevard, in the Beauregard Town residential neighborhood just south of downtown Baton Rouge. Police in gas masks, riot shields and body armor responded to the area with armored police vehicles and ordered the protesters off the roadway. Police immediately began making arrests, focusing on people who were standing in the road. Protesters responded by gathering in two large groups on private property, one of which was owned by a woman who allowed the protesters to stand in her yard. The protesters stood chanting at police slogans like “you are not the uniform” and “no racist police” until two more lines of police in riot gear moved in to flank the line of officers. Boxed in, protesters stood firm in the yards of the two properties and police began yanking people out of the crowd and marching them to awaiting police vehicles. The rest of the crowd began fleeing north on France Street, and police pursued them in armored vehicles.